Meeting Critiques

Each month songs of members are critiqued at the 1st Thursday workshop. Winners each month are published in Songwriters Notes. Members only may enter up to 2 songs per month (or more if time allows) by going to this link https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/ to enter the lyric and audio file or you may upload the lyric and perform the song live at the meeting. Time is limited to the review of 8 songs per meeting on a first come basis. (If we run out of time, the songs will be moved to next meeting). Members will have until the end of November to rewrite and record their song before it is sent to the judge. At the end of each year, the songs are judged by industry pros and the Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriter whose song garnered the most points from the judges. Also, The Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award goes to songwriter who has the most songs with the highest points in the top ten. Winners are announced at the Virtual Awards Program in February which include performances by the finalists.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

BEST SONGS OF 2009

Announced at our July 13th meeting.....


Songwriter of the Year, Vern Dailey 
(Songwriter with most winning songs in 2009.)
Read about Vern here:  http://dsapress.blogspot.com/2010/08/legend-in-his-own-time.html
and Song of the Year, "It Was Easy For You" by Ray Phillips and Richard Davis. Second place was "You Shined on Me" by Phillips and Davis, and third was "Good and Faithful" by Stephen Blackwell.

Our Song of the Year judge this year is Terri Jo Box
Box was blessed with 3 top 10 singles on the Christian Country Charts, nominated for 1999 Female Vocalist of the Year and her single "Faith" was voted one of the top 15 Songs of the Year in 2000. With a dream of still "making it" in the Country world, she loaded up the U-haul and left Nacogdoches, Texas for Music City. TJ has been focusing primarily on her writing in the last couple of years..."its such a rush to finish one...they're all my favorites" She still has a dual passion for writing the song and then singing it to see how the audience reacts. She also books and hosts two weekly singer/songwriter nights, McGuinness Girls Night on Monday nights, at Dan McGuinness right on music row and Tuesday nights at the "The Rusty Nail" in Hermitage. http://www.myspace.com/terrijobox


JANUARY
Cross My Heart by Vern Dailey

FEBRUARY
Easy For You by Ray Philips and Richard Davis

MARCH
Shined On Me by Ray Phillips and Richard Davis
Look Beyond by Jerry Dobson

APRIL
Our Heaven On Earth by Vern Dailey
Always A Day Behind by Roger Russell and Bill Amos

MAY - no critiques

JUNE
First Place...Cross My Heart by Vern Dailey and Leslie Brooks
Tie for Second Place...Wishing In One Hand by Jerry Dobson and Daughter of Texas Wind by Morri Hartgraves

JULY
Which Side of My Heart by Vern Dailey

SEPT
Things I Don't Mind by Bob Paterno (The Stitts brothers proclaimed this one a hit)
Futile Attraction by Vern Dailey

OCT
Good and Faithful by Stephen Blackwell
He Was A Soldier by Justin and Jennifer Marler

NOV
I Can't by Justin Marler
Kissed You Goodbye by Vern Dailey and Sheryl Caddick

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Ray Phillips- 2008 Songwriter of the Year

Ray Phillips- 2008 Songwriter of the Year
by Buck Morgan

September on My Mind
is winning song of 2008 DSA monthly song critiques


With a hand in writing half of the 16 winning songs in the DSA monthly song contest, Ray Phillips, excuse me, the amazingly talented Ray Phillips is the runaway DSA Songwriter of the Year for 2008.
In addition, independent judges have recently chosen Ray’s song, “September in My Mind,” as DSA Song of the Year.
Clearly a favorite among DSA members, Ray faced stiff competition with the judges. You see, his songs had to beat out his songs in independent judging for Song of the Year. Ultimately the judges chose Ray and writing partner Richard Davis’ “September in My Mind,” beating out another Phillips/Davis tune, “She Loves to Infinity”.
Other songs among the judges’ favorites were “We Don’t Eat Together Anymore” by Bob Paterno and, yes, Ray Phillips, “A Man’s Gotta Do” by 2007 songwriter of the year Ed Williams, and “Dancing Feet and Honkytonk Hearts” by Vern Dailey, who’s won songwriter of the year numerous times.
“Finding great songs by DSA members is never a problem, but it’s always a challenge to find good judges,” said Steve Sullivan, DSA president. “That’s one reason we’re a little late in making this announcement. However, we’re very pleased to have found three music industry professionals to listen to and rate our songs.
Judges were: Mark Mason, a writer’s representative for BMI in Nashville. Mark listens to hundreds of songs every month and is a well-respected member of the Nashville writers’ community.
Steve Leslie is a professional songwriter with multiple Darryl Worley cuts, including two on his current album. George Strait has also covered one of Steve’s songs. In addition to songwriting, Steve runs a publishing company in Nashville and enjoys teaching songwriting.
Louis Lofredo is a long-time industry insider, producer and publisher and a good friend of DSA.
Those of you who regularly attend monthly meetings know that on most months DSA members submit songs for panel critiquing and membership scoring. The two highest scoring songs each month become nominees for Song of the Year. On months with fewer than six song submissions, only one song is nominated.
The DSA is proud of Ray and all the monthly winners and submitters. To hear some of Ray’s songs, please visit http://www.myspace.com/rayphillipssongwriter From there you can leap to Ed and Bob’s pages. If you want to know more about Vern Dailey, just Google him. He’s a Texas treasure.
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

BEST SONGS OF 2008

2007 Winning Song
No Better Day
by Ed Williams
2007 Songwriter of the Year- Ed Williams

2008 Winning song :
September On My Mind
by Ray Phillips
2008 Songwriter of the Year: Ray Phillips (Writer that had the most winning songs throughout the year)

NOV 2007
"A Man's Gotta Do" by Ed Williams
"Out of Time" by Lisa Apple

DEC 2007
"Nothing Left To Burn" by Vicky Williams

JAN 2008
"The Promise" by Ray Phillips, Jim Bardfield, Jesse Block

FEB 2008
"Break Even" by Charles Sterling
"Dancing Feet & Honky Tonk Hearts" by Vern Dailey

MARCH 2008
"Until Love Comes This Way" by Ray Phillips & Richard Davis

APRIL 2008
Weeds In The Sandbox" by Vern Dailey and Beverly Houston

MAY 2008
"We Don't Eat Together Anymore" by Ray Phillips & Bob Paterno

JUNE 2008
"The Road I'm Walkin' Now" by Ray Phillips
"Honky Tonkin" by Vern Dailey

JULY 2008
"Cowgirl Ballerina" by Ray Phillips & Richard Davis

SEPT 2008
"September in My Mind" by Ray Phillips & Richard Davis
"Something Good" by Jennifer Carson

OCT 2008
"She Loves to Infinity " by Ray Phillips & Richard Davis

NOV 2008
"Stupid Questions" by Bob Paterno and Ray Phillips

DEC 2008
"Love Is Just Another Word" by Bob Paterno

Listen to the podcast of the above songs and vote on your favorite:
http://dallassongwriters.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-04-05T08_10_20-07_00

Download a pdf hard copy of the Oct 2009 Songwriters Notes with 2008 best songs of the meeting winners announced.http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=1520070&da=y


Hear the winners each month on http://www.myspace.com/dallassongwriters

The overall winner of the 2008 Monthly Song critiques was Ray Phillips with the song "September in my Mind".
"She Loves to Infinity" and "We Don't Eat Together Anymore" placed second and third, respectively. See details below.

Our judges were Mark Mason (BMI - writer's rep in Nashville), Steve Leslie (Pro songwriter & music publisher in Nashville), Louis Lofredo (Pro producer and music publisher in New York).

Each judge picked a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner. The winners below were determined by compiling the scores as follows: 1st place winners were given a value of three points, 2nd place winners were given 2 points, and 3rd place winners were given 1 point.

Louis scored as follows:
1st place She Loves to Infinity
2nd place A Man's Gotta Do
3rd place We Don't Eat Together Anymore

Mark scored as follows:
1st place September in My Mind
2nd place We Don't Eat Together Anymore
3rd place She Loves to Inifinity

Steve scored as follows:
1st place September in My Mind
2nd place Love Is Just Another Word
3rd place Dancing Feet and Honkytonk Hearts

September in My Mind
1st Place overall with -- 0 + 3 + 3 = 6

She Loves to Infinity
2nd place overall with -- 3+1+0 = 4

We Don't Eat Together Anymore
3rd place overall with -- 1 + 2 + 0 = 3

A Man's Gotta Do
Love Is Just Another Word
4th place tied overall with 2 points each

Dancing Feet and Honkytonk Hearts
5th place overall with 1 point
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BEST SONGS OF THE MEETING CRITIQUES

Each month songs of members are critiqued at the 1st Thursday meeting. Songs that are critiqued each month are published in Songwriters Notes. Members only may enter by uploading lyric and audio file to https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/ or you may upload the lyric and perform the song live at the meeting. Members will have until the end of November to rewrite and record their song before it is sent to the judge. At the end of each year, the songs are judged by industry pros and the Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriter whose song garnered the most points from the judges.
Also, The Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award goes to songwriter who has the most songs with the highest points in the top ten.